I was in Amway from 2002-2005, and I can tell you without question that the reason I didn’t make the money I wanted was my own fault. Amway was great – I needed to develop the skills to develop a large network. The truth is that Amway distributors are more skilled at creating loyal organizations of people than any group of people I’ve ever ran into in my life, and I respect them for it more than almost any group of people in the world, even though I choose to pursue other options at this point in time.

Sure, after 3 years of painstaking hard work I had a grand total of 2500 pv, but the fact is – I would have had more if I had developed greater skill.

-David Wood

P.S. one thought – although I understand the ‘roulette’ comparison, Amway diamonds earn a significantly higher income than the average person, so a more fair comparison would be comparing the odds of going diamond to the odds of any single person in the united states becoming a millionaire. Most adults set out with the intention of making more money than they do. For example, people with a net worth of a million dollars according to wikipedia are 0.62% of the population. Now granted, that’s still more of the population that are millionaires than diamonds, but diamonds have some pretty cool lifestyles.

Rather than BASHING what the average person doesn’t do – why not commend the diamonds in Amway for becoming a 1 in 8333 kind of person? That takes some gusto.

As for the “success road map”, I’m not the one to ask. It’s a different road map for different people. If your plan is to setup a webshop and hope people come to you, then I frankly doubt you’ll have much success. As you say, you can’t easily and well explain the products benefits compared to the competitors. That’s essentially the role of the IBO, if you’re not willing to do it, then don’t expect to succeed in the role. Having said that, people skills are a skill, not a talent. You can learn them if you want to. IMO, they’re crucial for success in virtually all aspects of life, from relationships to jobs, to business. You might want to consider the benefits of improving in this facet! IMO Amway groups are some of the best in the world at teaching this.

Unfortunately, business opportunities such as Amway/Quixtar attracts people who want to make money the easy because of the promises… and that is simply not the case. As with anything that has the potential to earn you a lot of money, you have to work HARD (make connections, talk to people, sell your products like your life depends on it, etc.). You have to have a game plan, otherwise you won’t make any money. Sell=profit… find atleast one person who is willing to work hard=profit.

Great article man.

The people who say things can never be done should get out of the way of the people who are doing it.

This is a very well written article. I got bored reading through the first half of comments, but your article was a good read. Having advanced degrees in the Sciences, logic comes very easy to me, and there is nothing wrong with your logic, however i see no logic in the arguments. The methodology was fine.

Your critics call your article a long explanation, but have clearly never seen what “long” is… Try having to prove an experiment worked, the 3,000th time.

-UCLA expose

I married him last year and refused to have anythng to do with Amway as I didn’t like direct selling or mlm and never believed that I could do it, but after visiting Vietnam, and seeing the business opportunity and how fair this business, equal opportunity regardless of whether you are young or poor, old or rich…and in Malaysia where I come from, we have many Diamonds, some of whom qualified at 26 years old and now I reside in Brunei…small population of 391,000 inclusive of foreigners. Despite this size, our business is growing faster than ever, despite the recession.

Most importantly, having beginning to be active in this business since March 2008, I have myself personally put in about 60 people, and seen more than half making some income…which helps cover some of their vitamins cost and some even make extra income.

One of my friends just lost his job last month due to the recession, and having joined our network 5 months ago, he has a small sum of Amway income every month since the last 3 months. It may not be huge income…yet…but it is money chasing after you, especially when you are down and broke and don’t have a job.

We believe that Amway can help change some peoples’ lives, if only they try to do something about the opportunity. Yet, sadly, most sit still, do nothing and complain that Amway is a scam etc when they DIDN’T EVEN TRY. It’s just like going to university. If you don’t study, you may fail. In any business or in life, if you don’t work hard or put in effort, how can we expect results?

With Amway, my family enjoys steady income, great health (we are 100% users), peace of mind, gained new friends and also, more time to share with our loved ones.

This business works. My upline joined at 29 years old and retired at 31 years old. For the last 12 years, he has never worked (and he used to be a medical doctor in hospital – long hours…what good is earning tons of money when you don’t have the time to spend it…like in a conventional job?). He tells us….one of the most important benefits of this business…is that now, he has plenty of time to spend with his family. He saw his kids through delivery, goes on holidays whenever he likes (no need to wait for public holidays and peak seasons), and has since he first turned Emerald 12 years ago, been on every Amway holiday…5-star all the way.

This is my opinion, and I will continue to build Amway and help others (those who believe that they want to do something with their lives and future) to help themselves. With Amway, I have also gained self-esteem and more confidence in myself.